My Genealogy Hound

Capt. C. A. Bridewell, attorney, Hope, Ark. The popularity which Capt. Bridewell enjoys as a lawyer and practitioner at the bar has not been derived from any factitious circumstances, but it is a permanent and spontaneous tribute to his merit. On August 14, 1838, his birth occurred at Port Gibson, Miss., and he is the son of S. O. and Elizabeth (Rhodes) Bridewell, natives of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State. The parents emigrated to Mississippi at an early day, and there the father was successfully engaged in tilling the soil. He was a very active Democrat, and held many positions of trust. Both parents died in Mississippi. To their union were born ten children—nine sons and one daughter, and Judge L. O. Bridewell, a prominent attorney of Mississippi, is the eldest child. The mother had two children by a former marriage. Capt. C. A. Bridewell was reared on a farm, but never worked on it. He graduated at Oakland College, Miss., and graduated also from the law department of Oxford State University of Mississippi. He received a fine education and spent twenty-seven years in the school-room, attending and teaching school. After graduating at the law school in May, 1860, he went to Helena, Ark., where his brother, Judge L. O., had located, and formed a partnership with his brother, which continued until 1861, when he enlisted in Gen. Claiborne’s company (the same being organized by Judge L. O. Bridewell), and went to Little Rock, where he waited for the State to decide secession. Becoming disgusted he went to Calhoun County and raised a company known as the “Yellow Jackets,” of which he was made first lieutenant, and on the organization of the Sixth Arkansas Regiment he was made adjutant of the regiment. He was subsequently made captain of a company in the same regiment. He served through the Kentucky campaign as quartermaster of the Seventh Arkansas Regiment. For a short time he was on the staff of Gen. Claiborne, and was made transportation quartermaster. He served temporarily on Buckner’s staff, and for over a year he was quartermaster of Liddell’s and Govan’s brigade. While the army was at Chattanooga, he was in the transportation department, and while Hood was making the Atlanta campaign, he was on post duty at Millidgeville, Ga. At the surrender he was inspector of field transportation. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, but was in active field service for over four years, and held several commissions during the war. He was a gallant and fearless officer. After the war he returned to Mississsppi and remained eighteen months with his mother, after which, in 1867, he went to Camden, Ark., where he taught school for five years. He then went to Magnolia, Ark., again taught school for five years, and in 1875 came to Hope, Ark., where he continued his former occupation five years longer, thus making fifteen consecutive years that he was in the school-room. In 1881 he was made mayor of Hope, served one term, and then returned to the practice of law, which he has continued since. He represented Hempstead County in the Legislature in 1885. He has been president of the school board for a number of years, and is an elder in the Old School Presbyterian Church, of which his wife is also a member. The Captain represents fifteen of the best insurance companies in the United States, and also deals quite extensively in real estate, having several thousand acres for sale, some of which is very fine land. He was first married in 1865 in Georgia, to Miss May Fulsom (a distant relative of Mrs. Cleveland), and two children were born to this union: Charles P., attending Union Theological Seminary, and Robert O., in college at Batesville. Capt. Bridewell was married again in December, 1876, to Miss Jennie Foster, daughter of Dr. W. B. Foster, and to this union were born three children: Irene E., William F. and Edward Mc. The Captain is a Mason and grand senior warden of the State of Arkansas.